Nifty News

Faithful Followers

Sunday, November 25, 2007

I got a call from my friend, Julie this afternoon. She informed me that I was WAY too nice to Ron! LOL! She had Ron get on the phone and remind me of his "grand plan". The plan is - when the boys go to school, Julie gets a job while Ron stays home and does nothing. She may have a point there. Maybe ripping on Ron in front of 20,000 or so readers isn't enough. :D I know even though Ron may not totally get the whole "stay at home mom" thing, he's basically a good guy. Mostly.

I think I'm going to make Sunday my "answer questions" day. This way I don't have to use my brain too much and I can get back to all your questions at once.

Hi Dawn, I hear you about messes and the Notme's who did it. My son and his buddy had a sleep over the other night and they found a pillow with the stuffing coming out. Guess what they proceded to do?...You guessed it! All over the house.It could be worse. Instead of pillow fluff, they could have been using the Foam Party Machine!

Just curious - do you have to deny many comments?Nope. Very few, in fact. I deny comments that I think will make other people feel bad. My blog is a happy blog! I'm not publishing comments that put parents down or tell them they're doing everything wrong.I also don't publish comments from sad, hate-filled people who write to say you're stupid if you have more than two kids.People like that can start their own blogs and complain to their own audience, but they're not using mine.

Chaos comes when I moved everything from one room, (i.e my crafts) in the attempt to put everything back in an organized fashion.You know 'a place for everything and everything in its place?'I realized this past weekend I do not have 'a place for everything.' .....not even remotely so.Yes! That is my problem too. It's hard to keep things cleaned up when there's no place to put things. The eight of us live in a house that's just over 1000 square feet, so space is limited. We don't have a basement or play room or spare room to put toys and things so they have to go in the kids' bedrooms. It's ummm "cozy" here.

PS I'll pay you good money, babysit the kids, make you rum and cokes .....Whatever!!! .... if you would come and organize my stuff while I read one of my 'how to' craft books.You just said the magic word! :D

Dawn, Just wondering how many hits you get a day?I get between 10,000 and 15,000 or so during the week and a little less on the weekends.

Please explain something to me, because I'm new to the blog thing...why do people apologize for being "lurkers" or "stalkers" if they do not regularly leave a comment? Is it not appropriate to just read for fun?I have no idea. I don't care if people read and don't comment. In fact, I don't know what I'd do if all 10,000 readers commented every day!

Please, please -- I really want to hear the Tall Man story!LOL! There's no story. My sister and I just talk to each other in silly movie quotes and we always know what the other one is talking about. My parents, otoh, have no clue, which somehow makes it even more fun. ;)

Could you please explain to me though what is Thanksgiving for? We dont celebrate it here in Australia and I couldnt fathom having to get a huge dinner and the family together this close to christmas?Thanksgiving explained here.

One burning question--What is a yia yia?That would be "grandma" in Greek.

Love your blog and this is such a nice post! And you comment about your in-laws cooking a turkey on the car engine reminded me - do you remember the episode of "Wings" when Lowell sold Roy a Car-B-Que! It cooked/grilled on the engine of the car??? Maybe your in-laws would be on to something?:::snort::: Yes, I do! I loved that show. I just spent the last 45 minutes watching clips from the show on Youtube! That was a productive use of time.

Too Funny! This made me laugh out loud. And....how many hours did you take to "discover" these "neat" things?Too many!

ROFL!!!!! That's all I can say... ROFL, WHO buys that stuff?????Apparently half my readers do! Who knew I'd be actually giving you guys gift ideas with that post of what NOT to buy! :::cracking up over here!::: Oh yeah - for those of you asking where you could get those lame uh interesting items, just click the links in my descriptions.

What has prompted me to post here is that my hubby is a car buff and he says both those cars in the in-laws' garage are 1939 Chryslers. (I'm always impressed with how much my hubby knows, LOL.)Oooo, so close! They're both 1940 Willys.

However, one thing that no one else pointed out is that you still have your pumpkins, and they don't look at all ucky or moldy in any way. Very nice!Ummm yeah, about those. We didn't even get around to getting pumpkins this year. Oops! Those are my inlaws' pumpkins.

And last, but certainly not least, I got this email from my friend Mimi...Dawn ,Will you please mention Julian? He had a seizure or more...I need him to hang on until my mom comes,dec 4th. We are stuck in FL for nowloveMimi

Julian, the little boy with cancer who I've written about before, went to FL through the Make a Wish Foundation. I believe, as soon as he got there, he was taken to the hospital because he was having seizures. If you're the praying type, please keep Julian and his family in your prayers that he might improve enough to enjoy their trip to Disney and that he hangs on until Mimi's mom gets here from France.Thank you!

Oh I am so praying for Ju Ju. I had to laugh at the products, I don't need a bug listener because one of my boys already is one. He brought in a a live ant and tried to hold it up to my ear so I could hear what it had to say. For some strange reason, I couldn't let him get it close enough to my ear to try to hear it so he translated. I forget exactly what it said but I remember it had some eeks in it...

THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS bean bag beads! All over the entire upstairs, kids, persian cat, ceilings, walls. I just sat down and cried! LOL Now its "kinda" funny. My hubby and everyone else I told laughed their butts off!

Everytime I read something about Julian, I want to rush home and hug my kids. I can't imagine what he or his parents are going through, and it makes me feel so lucky that (knock on wood) my kids are healthy...........

I'm a man and if you tell my friends I'v been here they'll never let me dreink at their houses again! I just signed us up for updates on your books. I'd previously suggested magazines as a way to get started in writing,thru your hysterical Pokemon auction, and we're glad you got the 2 book deal! We have 5 kids and both work full time-so we just don't clean house. Last May she went on a major cleaning binge in the dining room. There on the buffet, under many archaeological layers of mail(bills), dirty napkins, books, and legos, was a Christmas cookie tray. Complete with crumbs and colored sugar.

Dawn, Thank you so much for keeping your blog a happy one. Folks making mean-spirited or negative remarks have no business leaving comments on other people's blogs, and really shouldn't be making them period. If they don't have something nice to say, they shouldn't say it at all. There is enough negativity and unpleasantness in our world today as it is. It's nice to have a place to go to get away from that...like your blog.Keep up the good work!

I am praying for Julian and his parents. I pray for healing for his body and that the seizures will stop.

I have a question, as well. I read an American parents forum (we are British) and this year there has been mention of Black Friday quite a bit. We've never heard it before, even on this forum that we've been on for over two years. What does it mean?

I realise I could google it or even go to wikipedia for it but that would be far too easy. Life just isn't life without a certain level of difficulty and well, you seem to handle it so much better than I! :D

I am keeping Julian in my thoughts. It is so sad to see such a young person with such a big burden on his shoulders. My husband passed 2 years ago from cancer at the age of 22. I can only pray that Julian improves and enjoys his disney trip.

Hehe, I just read the last few posts to your blog and had myslef a good giggle or two. The products are hilarious and I hope to not find any of them in my stocking this Christmas, because my husband is a faithful reader of your blog. I have two dogs that keep the dog smell in the house enough without adding a dog poop candle to the mix! YUCK, and ROFL!

Too funny. My husband often says, I want nothing more than to stay home with you and the kids. To which i always quickly respond, "Great, then I'll go to work." My sister and I laugh. Yeah, the last thing I need is to have another "child" at home.

"I also don't publish comments from sad, hate-filled people who write to say you're stupid if you have more than two kids."

People write things like that? How sad for them!!! I have three kids (all boys) and once had a woman ask me (and not in a nice way) "Are they all yours". Um, yeah - and we wanted all of them and want one more too!!!

1,000 square feet with six kids and two adults? Ohmygosh! I would have gone insane years ago. We have 3 times the space and 1/3 the kids and it still feels "cozy" sometimes. I hope your new book sells millions of copies so you can buy a fabulous new house with lots of closets and space everywhere!

Thank you so much for this "answer" session -- you explained a lot of things like the Yia Yia and the Tall Man story.........My kids are in their mid and late 30s now, but you sure bring back a lot of memories (and from this distance they are happy memories!)

I laughed all the way through your question and answers until I got to Julian, oh that breaks my heart! I will pray now for him and his family. I saw a saying today that helps me cope with this and things like this "When we can't see God's hand we can trust His heart". I hope it helps others too.

Dawn,I've posted a comment a few times now, and every time I do, I tell you something like "you validate my life!" or "thank you for living in the real world!". Your blog is refreshing to a Mom of her own 6-pack.

But guess what! You've done it again! I am posting today to say that I TOO have a family of 8 living in a (less than, actually) 1000 sq. foot house! "Cozy" does not even begin to describe it! :) I am so glad to know that I am not the only mother of 6 kids with a husband who works an insane amount of hours living in a shoe box.

Your humor is a blessing to me. I've got the positive outlook (most of the time, except when a child colors on the tv screen or writes on the beige carpet with a red marker) but my sense of humor and wit pale in comparison to yours. Thanks for giving your life (and mine as well) the hilarity it deserves!

Dear Dawn,Thanks for another great blog entry!I love the foam party machine, because it is so ridiculous, and I can imagine it would be the only thing worse than buying your kid a set of drums or trumpet (etc.). At least with the musical instruments, the kid has the potential to be Ringo Starr, but what potential does the messy foam game hold for the participant?UGH! Someone single developed those, for sure!I'll be praying for Julian and thank you for letting us know about him.God bless!Elaine

Hello again Dawn just passing through on my way to work and thought Id get my daily fix of smiles first.

Sorry to hear that Julian isnt doing so well at the moment especially at this time of year and you dont even need to ask he'll be in everyones thoughts and prayers including ours.

If you have the time Dawn please send Julie my best wishes along with this message ; As for Ron, why wait gal, get out there and find yourself a nice little job and let him take over now. No time like the present and then he could start chowing down on all those bon bons and chocolates and catching up with Oprah right away!!! LOL! Who knows he might even find time to do some of the other nine million and one other things us SAHM's do whilst the "real workers" go out to play!!? ( just a tad of sarcasm in that last bit)He might even find it a little boring after a while so he could always take on some extra child minding later!!

Ok you mentioned that yia yia is grandma in greek...So dumb question, is your grandma greek and if so do you know how to cook my faves, dolmatas & spanakopita? I LOVE greek food!Your blog rocks girl, as do you.

First off, I'm definitely praying for Julian.Secondly, how in the world are the 8 of you in 1000 sq. feet? The 6 of us just moved out of a 1200 sq. ft. house (with a full basement) to a much bigger house. When I got pregnant with our 4th, my husband's first words were "Where are we gonna stack all these kids?" So where do you stack all your kids??? :0)

About that "Tall Man", Dawn. I'm guessing: "Don't want a small man, just want a Tall Man, as long as he is all man, that's good enough for me!" We have some old westerns around here too.?? Lovin & fighting, fighting & lovin', all over the Rio Grande,was it?

We shopped day after Thanksgiving in our little town of 4,000 and it was sooooo quiet. I guess everyone thought they had to drive to the big city for the bargains. We had a 25% off coupon good at about 10 businesses locally. It was fun & much less hassle with the kids. Have a blessed Christmas season (making cookies, hee,hee) & I'll be praying for little Julian!